ALiCE 2: DINAH
by Adrienne Chavez
Summary: After being awakened by Andersen in the real world, ALiCE must find out if her last adventure was just all in her head... and she must also figure out what happened to all of her Villikins.
1. Chapter 1

DINAH

-1-

The clock is ticking but I can hardly hear it. I'm too busy staring at the ceiling to really care about anything around me. K. hasn't come to work for a couple of days now, which is really starting to get to me now.

I miss him.

I still hate Andersen.

Not much has changed recently. K. still works on transcribing the WoNDeRLaND tapes. Andersen keeps trying to break through to me. I keep ignoring him and spend my time trying to find a way to get my hands on those tapes. Because I miss WoNDeRLaND the most, and the longer I stay here in this place, the less I remember about the places I've been before. I'm dangerously close to forgetting WoNDeRLaND, and I want it back.

There's a new guy here now, helping out on my side of the hospital. He goes by J. I'm not sure why the guys have to go by a single letter here, but they do. Oh, well. Less for me to remember, I suppose.

J. swears that he is not K.'s replacement, and I hope he's telling the truth. The last thing I need right now is more loss. I've lost WoNDeRLaND, my Villikins, my memories, my entire life. Everything has been taken away from me by Andersen, because he had some distorted world view that led him to believe I'd actually be glad to see a man I never knew or cared for, after he had the nerve to take me away from the only place I ever thought of as home.

Okay, I gotta calm down. I can't keep freaking out like this. But I can't just stay here and accept it. 

I have to get out of here.


	2. Chapter 2

DINAH

-2-

From the desk of Dr. Andersen:

Project DINAH is a success, in that it has allowed me to look inside the tortured mind of my long lost daughter. I am grateful for the insight, which I'm sure will be scientifically and psychologically significant. 

But I am concerned with more than fame and history. My daughter ALiCE recently awakened from her alternative reality and, as perhaps should have been expected, she is not adapting well to the real world. She refuses to converse with anyone but a single intern - we are considering transferring him to handle our computerized records, but at this point we're more concerned with how ALiCE would take it than we are with the boy's actual technical expertise.

I never expected the girl to be so much trouble. But I refuse to give up on her. That is why I'm writing to you, asking for your advice and, perhaps, for some of your famous assistance in reaching particularly difficult patients.

I anxiously await your reply.


	3. Chapter 3

DINAH

-3-

"ALiCE?"

It's the middle of the night, and I'm lying in bed, watching the moonlight run across the cracks in the ceiling - the same thing I do every night in this God-forsaken place. I am so into my usual routine that it takes a few moments for K.'s voice to register.

I sit up and peer into the darkness. "K?"

"Come on."

The concept is laughable. "Come on? Where?"

"Come on."

I know K. knows the clinic as well as I do. Checks every 15 minutes. Locked doors. Staff at the desks, staff walking around, cameras and surveillance... it's not exactly an impenetrable penitentiary, but still. It's not like we could just get up and walk away.

K. hands me a bag I've never seen before - I can assume what it is though. My earthly possessions. Whatever it was they bought for me back before I came here. Was I even conscious back then, or still catatonic? Who was I back then?

It isn't the time to ponder such stories. K. takes my arm in one of his hands and leads me out of my room and into a dark hallway. Too dark. Something's not right here.

We approach the double entrance doors and exit without a card swipe or anything. We approach the elevators and walk into an empty and waiting elevator car.

I stare at K. for a long time before he acknowledges my presence. 

"I gotta take you to that restaurant."

"Are you serious?"

"You'll love it."

"No. K. How... Why... We just walked out."

He nods, but says nothing. The elevator reaches the first floor. We exit the hospital and walk into the city.

The sign outside tells me it's 4 o'clock in the morning.

I wonder how long it'll take Andersen to find out I've gone AWOL. I almost wish, for a moment, that I could still be there, just to see his reaction.

But I'm not in the hospital anymore. I'm in a new city with a guy I barely know, in a world I hardly remember.

This is going to be interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

DINAH

-3-

"J."

J. sits up with a start to find Andersen towering over him, looking particularly unhappy.

"What's... up... doc?"

Andersen's not in the mood for humor. "Where's ALiCE?"

J. lazily leans back in his chair and looks at the panel behind him. "She's not eating breakfast?"

"Would I be here if she was eating breakfast? It's 4 in the morning, J. And she's not here."

"Come on, Andersen. It's not like she just got up and walked out."

"You have the security tapes?"

J. reaches down for the tape and finds an empty VCR. "Crap," he mutters under his breath.

"What?" Andersen snaps.

"No tape. There's never no tape. Somebody checks every night. Someboy had to have taken it... intentionally."

Andersen looks ready to explode. "You have to be kidding me."

"Sorry, doc. No tape. No ALiCE. I don't know what to tell you."

"Where's K.?"

Their conversation is interrupted by the appearance of a third person. Tall and white-haired, he towers over the two of them. With his dark hair and young-looking face, Andersen practically looks like a teenager next to the stranger. And J., red-haired and shorter, looks practically hobbit-like next to the two doctors.

"Dr. Andersen," the stranger announces with a flourish. "You called for me?"

"Yes, Dr. Mabuz, I..."

"...can't find your daughter?"

J. and Andersen stare at Mabuz.

"How did you know?" Andersen asks.

"I heard from a nurse doing checks. But then there's also this..."

Mabuz holds up the missing tape in a gloved hand, with the day's date clearly written in bold black markered letters on the tape's label. "Look what I found."

"Is she on it?" J. asks.

"Nope. Completely blank. I want it dusted for fingerprints, but I have a good idea already who might be behind this. I have another piece of news that'll likely tie this whole mess together a little more nicely for us."

"What that?" Andsersen asks.

"K. is missing. Didn't do his patient checks. Now I may be going out on a limb here, but I think it's safe to say, doc, that your daughter's run off with the tech support."


End file.
